Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Rights of Third Parties Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Privileges of Third Parties - Case Study Example Agreement is an understanding or set of guarantee between at least two people which is official and along these lines legitimately enforceable. It covers exchanges like purchasing and selling, work of staff, organization understanding, etc. It can likewise be depicted as: an understanding which is legitimately official on the gatherings to it and which broken might be authorized by activity in court against the defaulting party. Presence of agreement - Damages looked for by inquirers based on extortion and penetrate of trustee obligation in regard to redirected protection premiums - Negotiations between the gatherings occurring after procedures gave - Letter sent by petitioner approaching whether litigant acknowledged duty regarding the misrepresentation - Letter marked and returned by respondent yet with admonition - Whether official understanding closed between parties. Willis Management (Isle of Man) Ltd v Cable and Wireless plc [2005] 2 Ll L R 597 (CA/UK) A trust is an impartial commitment, restricting an individual (who is known as a trustee) to manage property over which he has control (which is known as the trust property) either to support people (who are called recipients or cestuis que trust) of whom he may himself be one, and any of whom may authorize the commitment, or for a magnanimous reason, which might be implemented at the occurrence of the Attorney-General, or for some other reason allowed by law however unenforceable. Pettit Equity and The Law of Trusts eighth ed. (1997) p 24. CONSTITUTION OF TRUSTS Establishing the Trust - demonstration of vesting the trust property in the possession of the trustee. On the off chance that entomb vivos transferor will vest the property simultaneous with announcement of trust, If testamentary property will vest upon deceased benefactor's demise in agents/managers, - Rule - if trust not established, it is invalid-Problems: A pronounces trust for B on Day 1, yet doesn't move $$ to trustee until Day 5. - Rule - until the trustee gets the property, trust not completely comprised invalid - Curative: On day 5, trust substantial and usable b/c trustee has property - Settlor can be constrained to move property they vowed to put in trust - where S got important thought for guarantee to make trust RIGHT OF THE THIRD PARTY The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act, which was given Royal Assent on eleventh November 1999, profoundly changes a basic standard of English law, in particular that solitary the individuals who are gatherings to an agreement can uphold rights under that agreement - the 'privity of agreement' rule. The Act applies to essentially all agreements. In this manner the development business must think about its effect on the entirety of its agreements - building contracts, subcontracts, experts' arrangements, security guarantees, protection strategies, bonds, arbitration understandings and so on. Right of outsider to uphold legally binding term: The outsider must be explicitly recognized in the agreement by name, as an individual from a class or as noting a specific portrayal however need not be in presence when the agreement is gone into. This area doesn't present a privilege on an outsider to uphold a term of an agreement in any case than subject to and as per some other

Saturday, August 22, 2020

IRA Peace Settlement Essays - Politics Of Europe,

IRA Peace Settlement The Irish Republican Army, otherwise called the IRA, is a parliamentary and patriot association that restricts the association of Northern Ireland to Great Britain. The IRA is likewise committed to the making of a solitary brought together Irish state. The name IRA got from the veterans of the Easter Battles of 1916. The fight was battled for help of Irish freedom. Appropriately the IRA turned into the political division of the Sinn Fein party. The political pioneers of Britain and Ireland, arranged a settlement that consolidated 26 of Ireland's areas as the Irish Free State. The rest of Ireland, remained some portion of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republican Army started to decay after Eamon de Valera turned into a head administrator and assumed control over the Irish government. The IRA and the Irish state were in consistent clash, during the 1930s and 1940s. The IRA began to focus on Northern Ireland during the 1950s. The IRA attempted to pick up favor from Northern Ireland, however fizzled. In 1969 the IRA began new extreme social changes in Northern Ireland, and the British government couldn't beat them following twelve years. This emergency likewise permitted the IRA to make a radical rebound. The Irish Republican Army was part into two gatherings. The authorities, which advanced a Socialist Ireland by vote based methods, and provisionals, that advanced psychological warfare. In 1972 the Provisional IRA's psychological oppressor strategies prompted the destruction of the Northern Ireland government. From 1972 to 1994 the Provisional IRA kept up their crusade on ending British casualties in Northern Ireland and Britain. On August 31, 1994, the Irish Republican Army declared a truce. This would influence the 25-year-old fight against British mastery of Northern Ireland. This truce came to fruition from quite a long while of secret gatherings between the IRA and the British government. This game plan for harmony is known as the Bringing down Street Declaration. The discussion between Northern Ireland and Britain started with Roman Catholic complaints against preference by the protestant dominant part in the nation. English soldiers were sent into Northern Ireland to watch the nation. They despite everything stayed there in 1994. The Catholic minority needed a gathering with the Republic of Ireland, which was basically Catholic. The Protestants of Northern Ireland opposed the reunification. The IRA gave no measure of time for the term of the truce, nor did they give up their weapons. There were two prior truces in 1972 and 1975, however they neglected to last. Patriots, supporters of the Irish Republican Army and others have become burnt out on the Northern Ireland struggle, and praised the declaration of the truce. The IRA has told its units to comply with a total end of military activities. In the primary open gathering between Gerry Adams (the pioneer of Sinn Fein), Albert Reynolds (the Irish Republic's executive), and John Hume (the pioneer of Northern Ireland's Catholic patriot), the British government was not satisfied with the expressing of the truce. The British government was attentively idealistic about the meeting. A political embarrassment prompted the breakdown of the Irish government in Dublin. Consistently, Dublin went about as an asylum between the Irish, British and American governments. The PM Albert Reynolds was supplanted by John Bruton. A psychological oppressor, supporter and Protestant local army called the Ulster Defense Association shot and slaughtered a Catholic man. The followers work with the thoughtful Protestant officials in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. This demonstrated the IRA was not by any means the only mighty gathering in the Northern Ireland emergency. The Protestant civilian army not long after the executing called a truce. This gathering was liable for additional passings than the IRA, in the two years before the truce was called. Ian Paisley, a pioneer of the Ulster Unionist Party, fought that the IRA must acquiescence their arms before any contact between the IRA and the British government can continue. Paisley likewise kept on opposing the possibility of delegates of Sinn Fein to partake in all the gatherings managing the fate of Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams and Britain haggle over the matter of IRA demobilization. Adams contended that weapons of the British armed force and the Northern Irish police can be fused in the discussions. The British government consented to Adams demand just if the truce

Thursday, July 30, 2020

CP13 Podcast with Mike Smalls from Hoopla Software about Boosting Team Performance

CP13 Podcast with Mike Smalls from Hoopla Software about Boosting Team Performance INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi folks! Do you have a sales team and are really interested in pushing up your motivation while achieving more results? Today we have an entrepreneur who knows all about this. Hi, Mike, who are you and what do you do?Mike: Hello, Mike Smalls, Im the founder and CEO of Hoopla. So I lead the strategy and direction of the company.Martin: What is Hoopla?Mike: Hoopla is a sales motivation and communication platform that allows companies to take          normally hidden data from backend systems like CRM systems and other areas, and bring that data to light. In order to drive the right kind of behaviors and actions from the sales teams and other people within the company by highlighting successes, creating competitions and recognizing performance as it happens through big screen TVs or mobile devices around the company. Its like an ESPN network for the entire company.Martin: Mike, can you elaborate a little bit on your background and at what point in time did you come up with this idea? Was there some kind of moment where you thought: Ah! Thats a super cool idea?Mike: So my background is in building and running sales teams, sales and marketing teams for a variety of companies, big companies like Symantec as well as a bunch of start-ups. I just kept seeing the same kind of patterns and challenges. I wanted to solve problems that I had, which was getting folks to do the right kind of actions and behaviors in advance to produce results as opposed to reporting on information after the fact.So getting them to do the right kind of calls, meetings, and create opportunities we needed to tap into their natural psychology. And the Ah-ha moment really was sitting in front of my TV on a Sunday watching a football game. When I watched one of these athletes do a flip into the endzone just to get on the Sunday highlight reel and the next weeks review show. I realized that the wiring of an athlete and a sales person are very similar. They love to be on stage an d they love to get the recognition and they love to compete and win. So there is a lot of similarities between athletes and sales people. That was the Ah-ha moment.Martin: Cool, so after this football match what did you do next?Mike: I was actually working for a company. I actually had a special clause in my contract that allowed me to work on my start-up in kind of my spare time without worry of them owning the idea. I had this idea where I hired a developer that came and worked out of my house. I paid him with my own money to build a prototype of an early sketch that I kind of thought through. It was very different from what Hoopla is today, but it was the beginnings of that. Essentially it was taking that data that was buried and was putting it out in an application, which then I was able to show some early investors, some seed investors the concept. Once that prototype was done it allowed me to raise a little bit of money to get the whole thing launched.Martin: Cool, so you got investors before you approached potential clients?Mike: Well, actually there is a sidebar to this story. One of the things I did to try and get prepared for launching this company was that we created a free application. It was just a simple little countdown clock that counted down the number of selling days left in a week, month, quarter, year, or what have you, subtracted out the weekends. That worked inside of sales force and it displayed the remaining selling days right at the sidebar. It was a component of Hoopla, but I figured we would get that out there on the market first to see if we could get some early adoption for free and build our marketing database.That actually was a really great start because what it did was allow us to get into communication and conversations with potential customers before we launched the real product. To date, we have had over 2,000 companies download that free little countdown clock that is forming the basis for our marketing efforts.Martin: Cool , Lets talk about the first three or six months after you successfully raised the money and you developed the MVP version and put it out to the sales force. What was it really like when you got the money to your bank account and started to build a team?Mike: Well, first of all, it was a little leap even though I had a little money it wasnt a lot. It wasnt enough to live off of. I ended up taking a serious haircut in salary, pay, compensation, and all that. I knew the clock was ticking from day one, but it was invigorating in that we got our very first customer. That moment when you sign that contract and they give you a check it is really invigorating. What happened from there was the word of mouth started to spread. Things started to build and to grow. Once we had the investment dollars we still had a six months of development to go before we could actually get out there and sell it full force.Martin: Understood.BUSINESS MODEL OF HOOPLA SOFTWAREMartin: Lets talk about the business model. So who are your major customers? Is it only the sales department or others functions? Are you focusing on a specific industry or region? What are your target customers?Mike: That is a good question. We started out built completely on the sales force platform and so our customers were the only customer who was used sale force at the beginning. Sales teams were the subset within that. Our customers were all sort of mid-size and larger companies that had inside sales teams that did transactions and had a lot of activity that they wanted to track and measure.One of the main components of our system is our TV experience where the individual reps are being highlighted on the screen and they are being recognized. Having people inside an organization to be able to view that was a key element for that first success. We have since expanded out that customers can use us with other data sources as well as other departments. That core first audience of that inside sales team that within t hese organizations is still our primary foot in the door. We do sell in the US, Europe, Australia, and Canada. Those are our four main geographies.Martin: Cool, I want to understand a little bit more how the product works. Is it really that a customer is building the dashboard for himself and needs to plug in the TV in order to show this to the sales people? Or is it that you are automatically building some great dashboards and distribute them to the TV?Mike: Yes, good question. We have a bunch of template elements that can be displaced. So leaderboards, top performers, countdowns, and team versus team kind of elements. We have all these kind of templates that are fed by the data that the customer will link into our system. That linking in can come from a sales force report or it can come from a CSV file, Excel file, and soon a Google sheet spreadsheet. All that information can be fed in automatically.The customer doesnt have to be an expert in design or all that. Essentially it is like building a PowerPoint slide show if you will. Put these different components together that play in a loop and they are dynamically being updated as the data is changing. One of the key things that people love is the automated alerts or news flashes that occur whenever data changes that it significant. A deal gets closed, a goal gets met, somebody achieves something, there is fan fair, there is a song that plays, a video that plays and each individual rep can put their own walk-up song, their own custom soundtrack to their face and their image, or show a GIF image. It gets real fun and they have a lot of fun doing that.Martin: Okay, I understand. So this is the unique selling point, I guess.Mike: Part of it, yes.Martin: Imagine Im a sales guy. I have at least two options when I want to understand my metrics. I can either use Hoopla software or I can use some other dashboard provider which delivers me some real time analytics? Why should I use Hoopla?Mike: Hoopla makes everything come to life and it is pushing that information out, it is broadcasting that information out as opposed to you having to log into some system to do your own analysis and to remember to do that, right. So to what is happening is as things are occurring in your organization information is being pushed out. People are being celebrated. Wins are being recognized. People can even challenge each other live on a given metric. So I might challenge you to a three-day competition that you have to accept and its all public information through a broadcast. The big difference is that its relevant, interesting, and engaging, but its being pushed out to you and being broadcast to you as opposed to you going I need to go check my dashboard.Martin: So you are trying to use gamification and pushing the message out there?Mike: Yes, thats right. Game mechanics play a role here because its recognition, competition, and you can see progress against goals. It is very relevant as opposed to static informa tion.Martin: Can you put some light on how the competitive situation in a sales team changes once the Hoopla system is in place? For example, what is the average uplift in productivity, sales, per sales person, whatsoever? And what is the effect of the people selling the lowest? Are they team motivated?Mike: Those are good questions and they come up a lot. First of all from an uplift perspective, are customers report to us all kinds of uplift activities that they see happening. Anywhere from 30% on up and it is pretty amazing the kind of changes that can happen. Sort of to highlight that we have, one customer they bought Hoopla and they had this problem where they had to field in a sales force that wasnt being updated. It was like a lead source field and they wanted to get that done. What they did was created a little highlight and then focused on that. A competition around who could get those fields updated. The first day they broadcasted that information out there people started t o question what field do we have to fill up and etc. By day three, 100% had been changed and been filled out. So by this quick and simple little highlighting gamification techniques, it actually causes the behavior change.Your question about top performers versus bottom: I think one of the things that are interesting is people have control over these metrics. This is not something happening to them. So if for example you are measuring people on the number of calls being made and they are at the bottom of the list. They have control over how to change that. They can see that and see that as a fair system versus the manager giving favoritism for somebody over another and they dont know if its fair or not. This is an objective system. Its clear how you can win. That makes it much more motivational.Martin: How is your pricing model working and how did you come up with this price point?Mike: Our pricing model is we charge per user, per month. Its around $15 a user, per month. It actually goes down depending on your connections. But that price point was built on some research that we did by talking to existing customers. We actually hired a firm to help us with that to help us  understand the optimal point where customers really saw the value and wanted to have a price point that mapped to the value proposition. We did a lot of analysis on that and that has really been paying off for us. It helps to give us an optimal curve in terms of price point and value gained by the customer.Martin: Mike, I understand how your business model is working right now. But did it change significantly over the years?Mike: Not significantly, but definitely we have made tweaks. We have made changes things as we have learned by talking to customers and by seeing what happens on a given quarter or month basis. But nothing really has been significantly different. Its just minor changes to packages and pricing over time.Martin: How are you now a days acquiring customers and what did you do in terms of customer development?Mike: So we started off very direct sales, inside sales, where we were using that marketing tool of a free application to kind of generate leads to then contact those folks to create our first customers. We built up a sales organization that did that over time. What we have been doing in the last six months is steering more and more toward making the self-service experience much more possible with the product. You can now go up to Hoopla.net today. You can sign up for a free trial. You get 14 days. You can set up your whole system. At the end of that time, you can just put your credit card in and you buy the product without even talking to anyone if you want or we are here to help. We have live chat. We have people on call. People that can help with the demo of it. The goal is to reduce all the friction to let people buy on their own and add users as they need.Martin: Mike, when you are looking into the future for the next two or three years, what t hings of the following do you want to focus on? Is it:An internationalization because you said that youre only active in only four countries?Do you want to focus down on the sales department meaning extending the value propositions you are offering the sales department? OrExtending the current value proposition you have that means active metrics and motivation gamification and extending this to other departments like for example marketing, customer support, product, and so on?Mike: I would say that it is the latter. Our vision is that Hoopla is applicable and valuable to every employee in every company. We think every company in the world should be using the product because it makes the employees perform better. It makes them more engaged. It gives them visibility into where they are against their goals, progress, and against each other. So we think that multiple departments are the right answer going forward.Martin: When you started out what had been your expectations? So lets say this is what I wanted to have achieved after four years and now you are here and what is the delta between what you have expected and what you actually achieved?Mike: Good question. You know that everybody always assumes a perfectly linear growth path that keeps going up and to the right. When the day you start till you advance four years and everything goes perfectly and smoothly. I think the difference in reality versus expectation is that is a very herky-jerky path to success. It is not a smooth road. You have got to expect a lot of bumps along the way and be able to react to those changes. Nothing ever goes as planned. Things take twice or three times as long as you expect, but you just got to stay the course otherwise you will get derailed. So it is definitely different than I expected, but very rewarding.Martin: What have been the biggest bumps and how did you circumvent or manage them?Mike: I would say categories of bumps, right. It is people, hiring the right kind of people and putting them on the team. Its making the right kinds technology and product decisions. Where do you put your investment? How fast do you spend your money? Do you optimize for growth or different areas?I think there is learnings along the way. You know the CEOs job is to make sure we have the right strategy, make sure we have the right people, and that we have money in the bank. I have made mistakes in each one of those areas, but I think we are settling down it that.Martin: Good stuff.ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE FROM MICHAEL SMALLSMartin: Great, I assume you have a lot over the years. So if your child comes up to you and says: Daddy, I would like to start a company and imagine your child is a little bit older like 15 or 16 or so. What type of advice would you give your child?Mike: Well, I would say first of all the company is going to be more successful if youre attempting to solve a problem you are intimately aware of, something you are passionate about. Just starting a company for starting a companys sake I would not recommend it. I would recommend you first identify an area of expertise and a problem to solve that you are passionate about solving because you have to be able to stick with it. I would also give him advice or her advice that you need to be prepared for a long grueling effort and you have got to be prepared for that. Its not a get rich quick scheme at all. I would recommend that as well.Martin: Any other things that you have learned?Mike: I would say go with your gut because you are going to get a lot of advice from a lot of people, investors, other folks, and if you get tossed and turned a little bit you are going to get off course. If you follow your gut you know exactly what and your gut can usually be trust on that. I think that is a key piece of advice.I would say dont spend the money too quickly, be careful, be conservative about it. It goes fast. So you have to make sure you are managing your finances very well because its a long road an d you want to be equipped for that.Martin: So when I talk to start-ups most of them, especially in the early days have problems with generating sales. Either because they dont understand the customer, they dont know how to reach them, close a deal, etc. You have lots of experience in terms of sales. What is your advice on really closing a deal and getting to the customers fast and cheap?Mike: You know its back to the old crossing the chasm model, but you have to find the early adopters that are going to have influence with other customers. One of the most important things you can do is build sort of band equity and word of mouth within a particular area. If you have got a product and you want to find those customers that want to be your advocates and you want to really leverage those advocates to help spread the word to other customers.We had the wonderful experience of having some early influential customers that they would tell other people about it or people would come to their o ffices with our product on the walls, being used and they wanted to know more about it. I think its that and making sure that you create really good equity with your customers so you dont burn any of those bridges. You treat everybody fairly. Its better to start off with a good group of customers than to have bad word of mouth to be spread out there.Getting to them the challenges are always breaking through the noise. That is why we did the countdown clock. It allowed us to get in the door. But finding those customers and asking them for referrals, asking people to spread the word for you are really key elements.Martin: Mike, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and walking us through how you business model and your model works. Thank you so much.Mike: My pleasure. Thank you.Martin: Have a great day.THANKS FOR LISTENING! Welcome to the 13th episode of our podcast!You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi folks! Do you have a sales team and are really interested in pushing up your motivation while achieving more results? Today we have an entrepreneur who knows all about this. Hi, Mike, who are you and what do you do?Mike: Hello, Mike Smalls, Im the founder and CEO of Hoopla. So I lead the strategy and direction of the company.Martin: What is Hoopla?Mike: Hoopla is a sales motivation and communication platform that allows companies to take          normally hidden data from backend systems like CRM systems and other areas, and bring that data to light. In order to drive the right kind of behaviors and actions from the sales teams and other people within the company by highlighting successes, creating competitions and recognizing performance as it happens through big screen TVs or mobile devices around the company. Its like an ESPN network for the entire company.Martin: Mike, can you elaborate a little bit on your background and at what point in time did you come up with this idea? Was there some kind of moment where you thought: Ah! Thats a super cool idea?Mike: So my background is in building and running sales teams, sales and marketing teams for a variety of companies, big companies like Symantec as well as a bunch of start-ups. I just kept seeing the same kind of patterns and challenges. I wanted to solve problems that I had, which was getting folks to do the right kind of actions and behaviors in advance to produce results as opposed to reporting on information after the fact.So getting them to do the right kind of calls, meetings, and create opportunities we needed to tap into their natural psychology. And the Ah-ha moment really was sitting in front of my TV on a Sunday watching a football game. When I watched one of these athletes do a flip into the endzone just to get on the Sunday highlight reel and the next weeks review show. I realized that the wiring of an athlete and a sales person are very similar. They love to be on stage an d they love to get the recognition and they love to compete and win. So there is a lot of similarities between athletes and sales people. That was the Ah-ha moment.Martin: Cool, so after this football match what did you do next?Mike: I was actually working for a company. I actually had a special clause in my contract that allowed me to work on my start-up in kind of my spare time without worry of them owning the idea. I had this idea where I hired a developer that came and worked out of my house. I paid him with my own money to build a prototype of an early sketch that I kind of thought through. It was very different from what Hoopla is today, but it was the beginnings of that. Essentially it was taking that data that was buried and was putting it out in an application, which then I was able to show some early investors, some seed investors the concept. Once that prototype was done it allowed me to raise a little bit of money to get the whole thing launched.Martin: Cool, so you got investors before you approached potential clients?Mike: Well, actually there is a sidebar to this story. One of the things I did to try and get prepared for launching this company was that we created a free application. It was just a simple little countdown clock that counted down the number of selling days left in a week, month, quarter, year, or what have you, subtracted out the weekends. That worked inside of sales force and it displayed the remaining selling days right at the sidebar. It was a component of Hoopla, but I figured we would get that out there on the market first to see if we could get some early adoption for free and build our marketing database.That actually was a really great start because what it did was allow us to get into communication and conversations with potential customers before we launched the real product. To date, we have had over 2,000 companies download that free little countdown clock that is forming the basis for our marketing efforts.Martin: Cool , Lets talk about the first three or six months after you successfully raised the money and you developed the MVP version and put it out to the sales force. What was it really like when you got the money to your bank account and started to build a team?Mike: Well, first of all, it was a little leap even though I had a little money it wasnt a lot. It wasnt enough to live off of. I ended up taking a serious haircut in salary, pay, compensation, and all that. I knew the clock was ticking from day one, but it was invigorating in that we got our very first customer. That moment when you sign that contract and they give you a check it is really invigorating. What happened from there was the word of mouth started to spread. Things started to build and to grow. Once we had the investment dollars we still had a six months of development to go before we could actually get out there and sell it full force.Martin: Understood.BUSINESS MODEL OF HOOPLA SOFTWAREMartin: Lets talk about the business model. So who are your major customers? Is it only the sales department or others functions? Are you focusing on a specific industry or region? What are your target customers?Mike: That is a good question. We started out built completely on the sales force platform and so our customers were the only customer who was used sale force at the beginning. Sales teams were the subset within that. Our customers were all sort of mid-size and larger companies that had inside sales teams that did transactions and had a lot of activity that they wanted to track and measure.One of the main components of our system is our TV experience where the individual reps are being highlighted on the screen and they are being recognized. Having people inside an organization to be able to view that was a key element for that first success. We have since expanded out that customers can use us with other data sources as well as other departments. That core first audience of that inside sales team that within t hese organizations is still our primary foot in the door. We do sell in the US, Europe, Australia, and Canada. Those are our four main geographies.Martin: Cool, I want to understand a little bit more how the product works. Is it really that a customer is building the dashboard for himself and needs to plug in the TV in order to show this to the sales people? Or is it that you are automatically building some great dashboards and distribute them to the TV?Mike: Yes, good question. We have a bunch of template elements that can be displaced. So leaderboards, top performers, countdowns, and team versus team kind of elements. We have all these kind of templates that are fed by the data that the customer will link into our system. That linking in can come from a sales force report or it can come from a CSV file, Excel file, and soon a Google sheet spreadsheet. All that information can be fed in automatically.The customer doesnt have to be an expert in design or all that. Essentially it is like building a PowerPoint slide show if you will. Put these different components together that play in a loop and they are dynamically being updated as the data is changing. One of the key things that people love is the automated alerts or news flashes that occur whenever data changes that it significant. A deal gets closed, a goal gets met, somebody achieves something, there is fan fair, there is a song that plays, a video that plays and each individual rep can put their own walk-up song, their own custom soundtrack to their face and their image, or show a GIF image. It gets real fun and they have a lot of fun doing that.Martin: Okay, I understand. So this is the unique selling point, I guess.Mike: Part of it, yes.Martin: Imagine Im a sales guy. I have at least two options when I want to understand my metrics. I can either use Hoopla software or I can use some other dashboard provider which delivers me some real time analytics? Why should I use Hoopla?Mike: Hoopla makes everything come to life and it is pushing that information out, it is broadcasting that information out as opposed to you having to log into some system to do your own analysis and to remember to do that, right. So to what is happening is as things are occurring in your organization information is being pushed out. People are being celebrated. Wins are being recognized. People can even challenge each other live on a given metric. So I might challenge you to a three-day competition that you have to accept and its all public information through a broadcast. The big difference is that its relevant, interesting, and engaging, but its being pushed out to you and being broadcast to you as opposed to you going I need to go check my dashboard.Martin: So you are trying to use gamification and pushing the message out there?Mike: Yes, thats right. Game mechanics play a role here because its recognition, competition, and you can see progress against goals. It is very relevant as opposed to static informa tion.Martin: Can you put some light on how the competitive situation in a sales team changes once the Hoopla system is in place? For example, what is the average uplift in productivity, sales, per sales person, whatsoever? And what is the effect of the people selling the lowest? Are they team motivated?Mike: Those are good questions and they come up a lot. First of all from an uplift perspective, are customers report to us all kinds of uplift activities that they see happening. Anywhere from 30% on up and it is pretty amazing the kind of changes that can happen. Sort of to highlight that we have, one customer they bought Hoopla and they had this problem where they had to field in a sales force that wasnt being updated. It was like a lead source field and they wanted to get that done. What they did was created a little highlight and then focused on that. A competition around who could get those fields updated. The first day they broadcasted that information out there people started t o question what field do we have to fill up and etc. By day three, 100% had been changed and been filled out. So by this quick and simple little highlighting gamification techniques, it actually causes the behavior change.Your question about top performers versus bottom: I think one of the things that are interesting is people have control over these metrics. This is not something happening to them. So if for example you are measuring people on the number of calls being made and they are at the bottom of the list. They have control over how to change that. They can see that and see that as a fair system versus the manager giving favoritism for somebody over another and they dont know if its fair or not. This is an objective system. Its clear how you can win. That makes it much more motivational.Martin: How is your pricing model working and how did you come up with this price point?Mike: Our pricing model is we charge per user, per month. Its around $15 a user, per month. It actually goes down depending on your connections. But that price point was built on some research that we did by talking to existing customers. We actually hired a firm to help us with that to help us  understand the optimal point where customers really saw the value and wanted to have a price point that mapped to the value proposition. We did a lot of analysis on that and that has really been paying off for us. It helps to give us an optimal curve in terms of price point and value gained by the customer.Martin: Mike, I understand how your business model is working right now. But did it change significantly over the years?Mike: Not significantly, but definitely we have made tweaks. We have made changes things as we have learned by talking to customers and by seeing what happens on a given quarter or month basis. But nothing really has been significantly different. Its just minor changes to packages and pricing over time.Martin: How are you now a days acquiring customers and what did you do in terms of customer development?Mike: So we started off very direct sales, inside sales, where we were using that marketing tool of a free application to kind of generate leads to then contact those folks to create our first customers. We built up a sales organization that did that over time. What we have been doing in the last six months is steering more and more toward making the self-service experience much more possible with the product. You can now go up to Hoopla.net today. You can sign up for a free trial. You get 14 days. You can set up your whole system. At the end of that time, you can just put your credit card in and you buy the product without even talking to anyone if you want or we are here to help. We have live chat. We have people on call. People that can help with the demo of it. The goal is to reduce all the friction to let people buy on their own and add users as they need.Martin: Mike, when you are looking into the future for the next two or three years, what t hings of the following do you want to focus on? Is it:An internationalization because you said that youre only active in only four countries?Do you want to focus down on the sales department meaning extending the value propositions you are offering the sales department? OrExtending the current value proposition you have that means active metrics and motivation gamification and extending this to other departments like for example marketing, customer support, product, and so on?Mike: I would say that it is the latter. Our vision is that Hoopla is applicable and valuable to every employee in every company. We think every company in the world should be using the product because it makes the employees perform better. It makes them more engaged. It gives them visibility into where they are against their goals, progress, and against each other. So we think that multiple departments are the right answer going forward.Martin: When you started out what had been your expectations? So lets say this is what I wanted to have achieved after four years and now you are here and what is the delta between what you have expected and what you actually achieved?Mike: Good question. You know that everybody always assumes a perfectly linear growth path that keeps going up and to the right. When the day you start till you advance four years and everything goes perfectly and smoothly. I think the difference in reality versus expectation is that is a very herky-jerky path to success. It is not a smooth road. You have got to expect a lot of bumps along the way and be able to react to those changes. Nothing ever goes as planned. Things take twice or three times as long as you expect, but you just got to stay the course otherwise you will get derailed. So it is definitely different than I expected, but very rewarding.Martin: What have been the biggest bumps and how did you circumvent or manage them?Mike: I would say categories of bumps, right. It is people, hiring the right kind of people and putting them on the team. Its making the right kinds technology and product decisions. Where do you put your investment? How fast do you spend your money? Do you optimize for growth or different areas?I think there is learnings along the way. You know the CEOs job is to make sure we have the right strategy, make sure we have the right people, and that we have money in the bank. I have made mistakes in each one of those areas, but I think we are settling down it that.Martin: Good stuff.ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE FROM MICHAEL SMALLSMartin: Great, I assume you have a lot over the years. So if your child comes up to you and says: Daddy, I would like to start a company and imagine your child is a little bit older like 15 or 16 or so. What type of advice would you give your child?Mike: Well, I would say first of all the company is going to be more successful if youre attempting to solve a problem you are intimately aware of, something you are passionate about. Just starting a company for starting a companys sake I would not recommend it. I would recommend you first identify an area of expertise and a problem to solve that you are passionate about solving because you have to be able to stick with it. I would also give him advice or her advice that you need to be prepared for a long grueling effort and you have got to be prepared for that. Its not a get rich quick scheme at all. I would recommend that as well.Martin: Any other things that you have learned?Mike: I would say go with your gut because you are going to get a lot of advice from a lot of people, investors, other folks, and if you get tossed and turned a little bit you are going to get off course. If you follow your gut you know exactly what and your gut can usually be trust on that. I think that is a key piece of advice.I would say dont spend the money too quickly, be careful, be conservative about it. It goes fast. So you have to make sure you are managing your finances very well because its a long road an d you want to be equipped for that.Martin: So when I talk to start-ups most of them, especially in the early days have problems with generating sales. Either because they dont understand the customer, they dont know how to reach them, close a deal, etc. You have lots of experience in terms of sales. What is your advice on really closing a deal and getting to the customers fast and cheap?Mike: You know its back to the old crossing the chasm model, but you have to find the early adopters that are going to have influence with other customers. One of the most important things you can do is build sort of band equity and word of mouth within a particular area. If you have got a product and you want to find those customers that want to be your advocates and you want to really leverage those advocates to help spread the word to other customers.We had the wonderful experience of having some early influential customers that they would tell other people about it or people would come to their o ffices with our product on the walls, being used and they wanted to know more about it. I think its that and making sure that you create really good equity with your customers so you dont burn any of those bridges. You treat everybody fairly. Its better to start off with a good group of customers than to have bad word of mouth to be spread out there.Getting to them the challenges are always breaking through the noise. That is why we did the countdown clock. It allowed us to get in the door. But finding those customers and asking them for referrals, asking people to spread the word for you are really key elements.Martin: Mike, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and walking us through how you business model and your model works. Thank you so much.Mike: My pleasure. Thank you.Martin: Have a great day.THANKS FOR LISTENING!Thanks so much for joining our 13th podcast episode!Have some feedback you’d like to share?  Leave  a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed thi s episode, please  share  it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Also,  please leave an honest review for The Cleverism Podcast on iTunes or on SoundCloud. Ratings and reviews  are  extremely  helpful  and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.Special thanks  to Mike for joining me this week. Until  next time!

Friday, May 22, 2020

How Discrete Trial Teaching Works in ABA

Discrete trial training, also known as massed trials, is the basic instructional technique of ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis. It is done one to one with individual students and sessions can last from a few minutes to a couple of hours a day. ABA is based on the pioneering work of B. F. Skinner and developed as an educational technique by O. Ivar Loovas. It has proven to be the most effective and only method of instructing children with autism recommended by the Surgeon General. Discrete trial training involves presenting a stimulus, asking for a response, and rewarding (reinforcing) a response, starting with an approximation of a correct response, and withdrawing prompts or support until the child can give the response correctly. Example Joseph is learning to recognize colors. The teacher/therapist puts three teddy bear counters on the table. The teacher says, Joey, touch the red bear. Joey touches the red bear. The teacher says, Good job, Joey! and tickles him (a reinforcer for Joey). This is a very simplified version of the process. Success requires several different components. Setting Discrete trial training is done one to one. In some ABA clinical settings, therapists sit in small therapy rooms or in carrels. In classrooms, it is often enough for the teacher to place the student across a table with his or her back to the classroom. This, of course, will depend on the student. Young children will need to be reinforced for merely sitting at the table learning to learn skills and the first academic task will be the behaviors that keep them at the table and help them focus, not only sitting but also imitating. (Do this. Now do this! Good job!) Reinforcement Reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood a behavior will appear again. Reinforcement occurs across a continuum, from very basic, like preferred food to secondary reinforcement, reinforcement that is learned over time. Secondary reinforcement results as a child learns to associate positive outcomes with the teacher, with praise, or with tokens that will be rewarded after accumulating the target number. This should be the goal of any reinforcement plan, since typically developing children and adults often work hard and long for secondary reinforcement, like parental praise, a paycheck at the end of the month, the regard and esteem of peers or their community. A teacher needs to have a full quiver of edible, physical, sensory, and social reinforcers. The best and most powerful reinforcer is the teacher her or himself. When you dish out lots of reinforcement, lots of praise and perhaps a good measure of fun you will find you dont need a lot of rewards and prizes. Reinforcement also needs to be delivered randomly, widening the gap between each reinforcer in what is referred to as a variable schedule. Reinforcement delivered on a regular (say every third probe) is less likely to make the learned behavior permanent. Educational Tasks Successful discrete trial training is based on well designed, measurable IEP goals. Those goals will designate the number of successive successful trials, the correct response (name, indicate, point, etc.) and may, in the case of many children on the spectrum, have progressive benchmarks that go from simple to more complex responses. Example: When presented with pictures of farm animals in a field of four, Rodney will point to the correct animal requested by the teacher 18 out of 20 trials, for 3 consecutive probes. In discrete trial training, the teacher will present four pictures of farm animals and have Rodney point to one of the animals: Rodney, point to the pig. Good Job! Rodney, point to the cow. Good job! Massed or Interspersed Tasks Discrete trials training is also called massed trials, though this is actually a misnomer. Massed trials is when a large number of a single task are repeated in quick succession. In the example above, Rodney would just see pictures of farm animals. The teacher will do massed trials of a single task, and then start massed trials of a second set of tasks. The alternate form of discrete trial training is interspersal of tasks. The teacher or therapist brings several tasks to the table and asks the child to do them alternately. You might ask a child to point to the pig, and then ask the child to touch his nose. Tasks continue to be delivered quickly.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

International Project Manager Training Plan Free Essays

Finally, emphasis Is placed on building a support system for the International Project Manager that consists of tenured Ms, language support and senior leadership. Keywords: international communication; project management: intercultural communication; training 3 groups of people understand and interpret the world. These differing interpretations that cultures give to their environment are critical influences on the interactions between working and managing across cultures. We will write a custom essay sample on International Project Manager Training Plan or any similar topic only for you Order Now – L. Hocking: Managing cultural differences: Strategies for competitive advantage In order for a Project Manager to effectively manage a project that requires intercultural interaction and communication, it is critical that he is provided with a solid foundation that introduces him not only to the project and desired outcomes but also to the culture with which he will be working. The recommended training plan included here will provide the experience and exposure necessary for successful project management. Before examining how best to prepare to Project Managers for international projects, it is important to understand how successful intercultural interaction occurs. Intercultural communication, or the communication that occurs between two people of differing cultures, has many layers. Prior to the communication even occurring, ACH person brings his or her own constructs that exist as a result of the culture one is a part of. These schemata, or mental categories that humans create in order to make sense of the world around them, are fluid ideas that can begin as assumptions and grow with continued exposure. (Verne Beamer, 2011, p. 36) This means that an initial perception that one may have about a different culture, while important, can be developed through additional exposure and education. Once two people begin an interaction, each individual also contributes his or her own experiences, values, demeanor and language. You Saner, 2007, p. 191-219) These driving forces can cause one interaction to be perceived in multiple different ways depending on the backgrounds of each individual. Understanding the delicate nature of communication cross-culturally and how it can be strengthened by exposure to and education about the different culture provides insight in 4 to the importance of effectively trained Project Managers who can avoid unintentional missteps as a result of the communication’s complexity. Due to the critical nature of the role of International Project Managers, it is important o invest in their success through a 3 step phased introduction to both the role of International Project Manager as well as the culture with which they will be engaging. Phase 1: EX. Cultural Immersion Location: Corporate Office Duration: 1 to 4 weeks, depending on project complexity Details: There are two cultures into which new International Project Managers will need to be integrated – EX. Corporate Culture and the International Culture for which they will be leading. The purpose of Phase 1 is to integrate the PM in to EX. Culture. Throughout this 1 to 4 week phase, the PM will be introduced to our immunization systems, processes and procedures. Additionally, they will be provided exposure to our timeliness and interoffice communication. Finally, they will be introduced to the project that they will be leading and given an opportunity to work with key staff members on establishing initial timeliness. Expected Outcome: Project Manager gains fluency in EX. Corporate culture and their assigned Project Phase 2: Cultural Immersion Location: Both Corporate Office and International Offices 5 Attendees: New PM, Training Manager, Cultural Communication Consultant, Translator, Cultural Host Duration: 2 weeks (depending on project and cultural complexity) Details: This is a new phase in the International Project Manager training that has been incorporated as a result of previous missteps by Imps which have resulted in lost business and lost time. Previous cultural exposure for Imps was limited to short training sessions and â€Å"on the Job† learning in host countries. Field experts in the business of Intercultural Project Management have determined that this kind of training is not sufficient and does â€Å"not meet the needs of managers who want answers to their particular expectations. † (Gale Group, 2004) Phase 2, will begin with 1 week of cultural education. This week will be tailored to the specific IMP and the country with which they will be working. A cultural communication consultant will facilitate the first week of training with focus on understanding the ‘M’s perception of the culture with which they will be working. Then, together, the IMP and the cultural anthropologist with identify the key differences between the new culture and the ‘M’s own. â€Å"The Lewis Model† will be used to help the IMP understand how to relate with the specific ultra and what obstacles may be presented. (Lewis, 2014) Imps will spend the second week in their host country. During this time, they will focus entirely on the new culture with which they will be working. Cultural Hosts in culture and customs. Depending on where the IMP will be located, exposure could consist of tours of the city; classes with local business 6 professionals; practice shopping, eating and negotiating as well as language exposure. If a translator will be used, this week will also provide ample opportunity for the IMP to build a relationship with the translator to ensure effective immunization is occurring between the two. Expected Outcome: Project Manager becomes comfortable in new Culture and becomes aware of any potential cultural obstacles that may need to be addressed. Phase 3: Putting it Together Location: Training Site Attendees: New PM; Training Manager; Senior International Program Manager Duration: 1 Week Details: This is a new phase in the International Project Manager training that provides the IMP with the opportunity to see another project at work. The IMP will be paired together with a Senior IMP whose project also crosses similar cultural lines. This week is designed to provide the IMP exposure to a successful project at work so that he can ask questions and understand how the relationship was developed. The schedule throughout this week will be designed to give the new IMP to both Senior IMP and his team but also to cross-cultured team members on the team. Through a strategic roundtable and facilitated two-way discussion, the new IMP will be able to build best practices and recommendations that can be incorporated in to his project. This time will also serve to build the relationship between the IMP and one of his errs, thus strengthening the support system available for the new IMP. Expected Outcome: IMP develops best practices and support system that he can use when taking over his new project. In conclusion, when done correctly, expanding business operations in to a culture that is different can be rewarding and lucrative. Intercultural interaction is a delicate endeavor that must be handled with care and precision to ensure that unintentional missteps do not permanently damage a working relationship. The social constructs that Project Managers and contract workers bring can be d iametrically opposed to hat of a host country’s cultural customs and expectations. In order for International Project Managers to be successful, it is critical that their immersion in to EX. Company culture is thorough and streamlined so that time and resources are not wasted on adapting to that culture instead of the international culture with which the IMP will be engaging (Phase 1). Additionally, the IMP must be provided with adequate exposure and training that supplies them with culturally specific guidelines that they can use when beginning their project (Phase 2). Finally, the IMP must also be revived with exposure to Ex.’s expectations of a successful project while also providing a support system that can be leveraged in times of stress or dissent. The Three Phased Training Plan presented satisfies each of these requirements and is the first step in revolutionize Ex.’s international business organization. References Hocking, L. (1995) . Managing Cultural Differences, Strategies for Competitive Advantage. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley Publishing Company. Verne, I. Beamer, L. (2011) . Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace. How to cite International Project Manager Training Plan, Papers

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Who Do You Think Is Responsible For Evas Death And Why Essay Example For Students

Who Do You Think Is Responsible For Evas Death And Why? Essay An Inspector Calls is the story of the Birling Family, an upper middle class family in 1912 Edwardian society. The play however was first produced in 1946. Arthur Birling is a prosperous factory owner. He is well known in Brumley as was formerly mayor. He is described at the beginning of the play as a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties but rather provincial in his speech. He is confident that there will not be a war but as we know there was one so we begin to doubt Mr Birlings judgement. We learn that his father was knighted and that he is expecting to inherit this knighthood. We will write a custom essay on Who Do You Think Is Responsible For Evas Death And Why? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We first learn of him playing a part in the death of Eva when the inspector arrives. Mr Birling had previously employed Eva smith at his factory. He sacked Eva when she requested a pay rise. He thinks of this as unacceptable and says, I refused of course. This shows that Mr Birlings first priority is to make money. He strongly believes that a man has to make his own way He believes that she is inferior to him because of her class. She is just a lower class working girl and he is an upper-middle class businessman. Throughout the play he makes the continuous point that because Eva is a lower class woman, she has no value as a human being. He does not consider the harm he may cause to other people because of his attitude. He continuously denies having any part in the cause of Evas death because he believes that he has done the right thing for his business. When we learn that Eric had made Eva pregnant and that he stole money from his family and gave it to her all Mr Birling can think about is the way that it will make him look. He is afraid that he will lose his chance of being knighted. He says, Ive got to cover this up as soon as I can. Arthur Birling has done something to Eva, yet he cannot justify doing it. He acted selfishly and used his social status and beliefs to fire Eva. When Gerald Croft is first introduced in the play he is described as an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred man-about-town. We learn that he is very sympathetic when we first here about him and Eva. He shows sympathy for Evas situation, and his willingness at the County Hotel to hear her story shows he thought of her as an individual, unlike Birling or Mrs Birling. He describes her as young and pretty and warm-hearted and intensely grateful.